The present invention relates to printers equipped with a display for displaying menu screens for setting various printing conditions.
Conventionally, a stand-alone printer (including multifunction printers) is known. A stand-alone printer includes a slot for receiving various types of memory cards, such as a flash memory, and obtains an image from the memory card for printing the image. Since the printer does not need a separate host computer for providing the image to the printer, the printer is relatively easy to use.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-241990 discloses a stand-alone printer equipped with an operation panel having a display capable of displaying a menu screen for setting various printing conditions. The menu screen includes a number of menus for setting conditions such as selection of photo, the media to be printed (A4 standard paper, postcard, CD-R, and the like), printing layout, and the number of prints. By manipulating operational buttons provided in the operation panel, the user is allowed to select a requested menu from the menu screen, set printing conditions, and enable the printer to print.
The multiple menus of the menu screen are successively displayed on the display in accordance with manipulation of the operational buttons. However, other than a menu required by the user, the single menu screen includes a number of different menus. This complicates the user operation for, for example, selecting the requested menu. Also, since the menus are displayed successively in accordance with manipulation of the operation buttons, it is highly likely that the user erroneously selects a different menu than the required menu. Further, if the user needs only restricted conditions, the user operation is complicated by the multiple menus on the menu screen, which may lead to an erroneous operation.